The Mechanics of Affection and All that Entails
by uumiho
Summary: Because, sometimes, love is just unconventional like that. /NejiTen/


**The Mechanics of Affection and All that Entails**

Tenten didn't love Neji because he was her teammate. She didn't love him because he was hot, powerful, or even because he had a dark past. She didn't love him because he was mysterious and vague and closed off from the world, and she wanted to be that _special_ girl who broke the shell around his heart and taught him to trust.

No, all those things that had the other girls raving had no significance with Tenten. None whatsoever.

Tenten saw the little things.

She saw how he always spent at least two minutes before practice staring at the sky and watching the birds soar and dip among the swirling clouds and blinding rays of golden sun. She watched, and noticed that when he bickered with Lee there was always this barely-there smirk on his lips, the touch of fondness in his eyes that told her this was as much play for him as it was competition for Lee. She saw how after the hands of desire left them and they lay exhausted next to each other, breathing laboured and bodies slick with sweat, he would gaze at her without making a sound, his thoughts a mystery but all the emotions normally kept hidden from the world glistening in his white eyes with a sincerity that was almost painful.

All of these she saw, and she loved him for it.

The way he walked, the way he spoke, the way his hands were so gentle, and yet deadly-strong, the way he drank his tea—years of knowing him had educated her in all these areas, and she realized that she loved him for these, too.

She loved him because he didn't try to be something that he wasn't—he was a skilled ninja, brilliant, immensely powerful and fearfully dangerous, and he knew this, and was an arrogant git because of it. He knew that he had weaknesses, and instead of covering them up, he exploited them and grew to know them, taught himself how to succumb to them and then forced himself to overcome each one, which in turn make him even stronger.

She loved (and hated, sometimes) how he had absolutely _no_ libido—except for when he did—and if she ever tried anything when he "wasn't in the mood" he would never spare his own personal comfort just to amuse her. She loved how even when she was completely frustrated and ready to sock him in the mouth, he only raised his eyebrows at her in a way that implied that he _just might_ be daring her to try it and see what happened.

She loved him because he really, truly, honest-to-God was the biggest asshole she'd ever met—and he wouldn't try to hide that for the world, though the manners instilled in his head since childhood served to curb its effect. She loved how he could be sarcastic and rude while still speaking with the utmost politeness, and how each pithy comment and cleverly-worded barb made a smile come to her face—a smile that she would quickly have to cover with her hand to disguise, lest some official see and be offended by it.

She loved him for how he could go from being tender and understanding to scolding her about being irrational and impulsive and back again.

She wasn't feminine at all—not by a long shot, and he never pressured her about it. Though her sensei and her friends always nagged her about being less tomboyish, he never said a word and merely accepted it as how she was. She realized that if this were not the case, she probably wouldn't be able to stand him.

He was both an insensitive jerk and a passionate figure of a man, both at peace and in constant turmoil, a damned sinner and a pure saint wrapped in clean white robes. Some saw and acknowledged his flaws, others claimed he was as perfect as a crafted statue, sanded and refined until no flaw lay visible to the naked eye. Tenten knew each of these sides, and couldn't imagine him being the same person without them.

She loved how he wasn't gentle with her, not at all, and when they trained he treated her like an equal. She loved how, when he got a good hit in, and she was sent flying across the training ground, he would not sputter or apologize or fuss like some males would. He would drop his stance and walk—not run, but move at a steady, even pace—over to where she lay, winded and tense from pain, and would wait until she had recovered her strength enough to continue.

She loved how, even despite all his coarseness and oddities, he truly did care for her, and though he would flay himself alive before admitting it, her value as his teammate, friend, and lover, was one of the most significant in his life.

She loved him because he was nothing but himself, even though "himself" was a mentally unsound, emotionally crippled boy who pushed himself to be a man, and in doing so, deceived nearly everyone who saw him. She loved him because the only way she truly _could_ love him was by knowing his true nature and accepting him despite that.

Tenten loved Hyuuga Neji for what he was—not what people imagined him to be.

And that was why he loved her, in return.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh lawd. Look at the gratuitous amount of cheese in that thur drabbot. D: It's fixing to take over the world--I just know it. First my brain, then China. It will be epic.

Anywho, my dramadrama aside, I needed to write something cheesy and sappy. -cough- Emphasis on the need. I've been working on two extremely angsty NejiTen fics, plus a ShikaTema that's messing with my head, and all three of them are throwing knives into the basket and killing my soul. Thus, a hastily-written little bauble that will make me happy enough not to kill myself before I can post those damned one-shots. :3

Speaking of upcoming ficcage, summer break is here tomorrow, and I have plans to begin a--wait for it--chaptered fic! :O You may gasp now. I don't know if the first chapter will come before or after I get those horrid excuses for fanfiction up on the page, but just giving y'all the heads-up. Keep your eyes open for **Here and There: The Crossroads Between You and Me**, or possibly something a wee bit shorter if Judo can manage to _not _make a ridiculously long title for once in her life. Don't get your hopes up, though

Anywho, long author's note is long and boring, so I'll wrap it up. Have a fantastic summer, everyone! --Judo


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